Yeah we may be however many years into this but I still don’t like the idea of a game having crazy amounts of expensive DLC before it’s even finished. The base game by default here is part of a game.
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I feel the last two or three MKs have been particularly guilty of this, they announce the game and even before detailing the system they start showing DLCs. Was MK9 that had Goro as a DLC?Originally posted by Dogg Thang View PostComment
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MK9 had a ton of content as standard, and it was a brilliant game. MK 10 was a total mug off. Hardly any characters, hardly any stages, tag team mode removed and the DLC was insanely expensive. It was something like £25 for 3 characters or something stupid.
However, Sektor has been announced for this game. And that does make me happy cuz I love Sektor and Cyrax
EDIT: and it was MK 10 that had Goro as preorder DLC.Comment
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I'm with [MENTION=3144]Dogg Thang[/MENTION] on this one.
To me, DLC can be shown off before a game's actual release, but only when it's pretty close - because as we all know, a developer "finishes" a game a fair while before they actually release it (though in the era of digitial delivery, these timescales are shortened). Even so, the purpose of DLC was supposed to be to allow a developer to continue to support a game post-release.
A background to this that gamers don't often consider is how it affects staffing. For instance, think about how, once Red Dead Redemption was finished, Rockstar laid off a bunch of staff. We all know that game developers can be exploited and overworked by their publishers, and this "on the disc DLC" is a symptom of that; publishers are asking developers to create the DLC at the same time as the base game, so they can lay off/end contracts for developers and have a "fallow period" between crunches. Basically the publishers want to have-their-cake-and-eat-it-too in terms of reducing staff costs and supporting games post-release.
This is the problem with shareholder run publishers, and that whole model in general. Staff worked for years to make Red Dead, then when it comes out and sells like crazy, Rockstar let them go, lest they actually share in the profits of their hard work. It's despicable.Comment
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Layoffs after a project in no way game dev specific. I’d bet those laid off knew they’d be laid off before they even joined and these days games are finished after they come out, not before.
If a product I help make sells like hot cakes I don’t get anything extra. Why would I? I already got paid for my work. I kinda get wound up hearing about how game development is this terrible environment. I don’t think it’s specific to game development; I think it happens in countless industries. Particularly project based ones no?Comment
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The industry differentiates between permanent and contractual labour; ending a contract early isn't regarded as a layoff. Companies should, if run successfully, only have the permanent staff who are never laid off, and contractual staff who come and go in a more volatile way (but are generally paid more for their services to reflect their poor job security).Originally posted by Brad View Post
The reason this distinction is important is that even if a company had a thousand contractual staff, they don't have to tell anyone if they were to let them go. It isn't a layoff in a legal sense. In countries like the UK and USA, companies have to make a public statement if they lay off more than a certain threshold of permanent employees over a duration, not so for contractors.
All that means is that a company which is laying off permanent employees is simply safeguarding their revenue; now, you're not in their boardroom so you don't know if this is (a) because the company is doing badly or (b) because they're doing well and just want to lower their wage bill because it's going to be ten years before they release another product.
Ultimately when you see a story on Develop or GamesIndustry saying "x company has been forced to make layoffs" this is what it means. It isn't part of the development life-cycle of a successful firm.
To be fair though, you shouldn't be saying "I have it worse", you should be supporting people who want a thicker wedge of the cake and then you get to say you should have it too. This was similar to a while back when the video game voice actors went on strike, and many staff within the industry got bent-out-of-shape over it, saying things on the industry sites like "well we don't get royalties, why should they?" When in reality they should've been saying "they deserve royalties, and so do we".If a product I help make sells like hot cakes I don’t get anything extra. Why would I? I already got paid for my work. I kinda get wound up hearing about how game development is this terrible environment. I don’t think it’s specific to game development; I think it happens in countless industries. Particularly project based ones no?
Gaming has a specific problem because the industry is attractive, particularly to young people, who are often in their first job. Speaking from experience, media companies can harshly exploit young labour, taking advantage of their zeal to "break in" to the industry, telling them these "work 9 days for every 7 for 18 months at a time for no compensation" is just the norm. The most nefarious part of this is making an employee "permanent", then filling their head with "the company line", telling them they're "part of the family" and need to pull their weight without making a fuss... Then crushing them 4 years later with a redundancy, while they're burnt out after a long period of crunch, and they're forced to discover the harsh reality that all that "part of the family" talk was bull**** to keep them grinding the wheel.Comment
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Not. Specific. To. Game. Development.
None of it.
Some companies are ****ty. Some aren’t.Comment
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Working 9 days for every 7?
Is a time machine an employee perk?
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It means to work 7 days a week, then be asked to work 2 additional days worth of hours on top of that 7 per week.Originally posted by teddymeow View PostWorking 9 days for every 7?
Is a time machine an employee perk?
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Fine, but what are you getting "wound up" over? There's nothing honourable in working at the ****tiest place or in the worst industry, and there's nothing to be gained by somehow proving you have it worse than someone else. If you feel someone else has it better, you should try to elevate your own industry's practices, not criticise them for having it easy.Originally posted by Brad View Post
The media industry can be a bad place to work, but then I'm sure those guys in India who have to tear apart beached ships with ropes and hand-tools have it worse. There's always someone with it worse. It doesn't mean something can't be bad or have problems.
The reason you've heard this a lot with the industry lately is developers are getting tired of hearing companies "trade" on their hard work, saying things like "you gamers will love x game, our staff worked 100hrs a week for 3 years to make it!". That's them admitting they have bad scheduling and a poor work-life balance. They shouldn't get to sell that as a positive!Last edited by Asura; 20-04-2019, 19:47.Comment
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Never said I had it worse. Don’t put words in my mouth.Comment
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Anyone tried Fitness Boxing yet?
Nintendo are saying it's sold 300k copies, so maybe it's worth a look if you're interested in something akin to a workout tape.Comment
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It would appear that the Switch has now overtaken the N64 for lifetime global unit sales, making it the eighth-most successful Nintendo platform of all time as things currently stand.
The SNES/SFC is currently above it in seventh with lifetime global sales of 49m units.
Last edited by Nu-Eclipse; 23-04-2019, 17:09.Comment
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Those who've purchased Cuphead for the Switch, what's it like? Is it a faithful conversion? Also, anyone know when the physical version is coming?Comment
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